Power, Social and Political systems and blindness

Subject: Re: Power, Social and Political systems and blindness


Hi Ron and All Believers in Open Discussion,

Guilty as charged, Ron. Marx has been an influence in my thinking. I'm the
son of an old Marxist, who never shied away from speaking his mind. But I
am also heavily influenced by my past years as a Christian, and certainly
I've had my head pounded full of the virtues of American Capitalism.
But as you wrote: "the point I am
making is that all of the systems that have been tested to date are
imperfect and have serious flaws that are eventually exploited. The perfect
system does not exist, except only in theory."
So, since this is the ACB list, my question is, how do we blind people
understand and use to our advantage the imperfect system we are living
under?
One thing for sure, the only thing the folks on this list have in common is
the fact that we are blind. And even then it is not consistent. some of us
are totally blind, some partially blind, some newly blind and some not sure
just what we are.
Because of our individual backgrounds, we have varied views about blindness.
We belong to an organization of volunteers, a small percentage of the
nation's population, yet still able to join forces on common issues, and
make a measure of progress.
And that fact is encouraging. If we can make our voice heard, even in the
smallest of ways, that is a tribute to our collective strength.
While the purpose of the ACB is not to attempt to change our government, we
certainly can learn by observing the world about us, debating among
ourselves, and applying what we learn to what we must do to maintain the
openness of the ACB, and become more effective.
To my way of thinking, we are rowing upstream here in America. The
government is a top down, central control system and the ACB is a bottom up
organization, a collection of affiliates and special interest groups
governed by a low key central government. This makes our job more difficult
in our various battles.

In my mind the NFB took the position that if you can't lick them, join them.
They developed a strong central government and control the activities of the
local chapters. Pretty much a pattern of where we are today in our Nation.
It is an effective way of organizing. But it is not a People's Movement.
Eventually the preservation of the people in power becomes the major focus
of such organizations, and the membership become a means to keeping the
current government in power.
Keeping the ACB as a People's Movement should be a central concern of each
of us. Remember Ron's words, "...The perfect
system does not exist...". But together we can keep our eye on that goal,
and work together to ensure that we are always pointed into the Light.

Carl Jarvis




----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronald E. Milliman" <rmilliman@insightbb.com>
To: "Carl Jarvis" <carjar82@gmail.com>; "J.Rayl"
<thedogmom6363@frontier.com>; "Acb List" <acb-l@acb.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 9:49 AM
Subject: Power, Social and Political systems and blindness


Re: Social and Political systems

While much of what Carl seems to support is very closely akin to the
social/political views of Karl Marx and Marxism, which recognized only a
two class system, the class stratification system to wich you referred that
included the middle class was first espoused by Max Weber.

Max Weber was certainly strongly influenced by Marx's ideas, but rejected
the possibility of effective communism, arguing that it would require an
even greater level of detrimental social control and bureaucratization than
capitalist society. Moreover, Weber criticized the dialectical presumption
of proletariat revolt, believing it to be unlikely. Instead, he developed
the three-component theory of stratification. Weber supposed there were
more class divisions than Marx suggested, taking different concepts from
both functionalist and Marxist theories to create his own system. He
emphasized the difference between class, status, and power, and treated
these as separate but related sources of power, each with different effects
on social action. Working at half a century later than Marx, Weber claimed
there to be in fact four main classes: the upper class, the white collar
workers, the petite bourgeoisie, and the manual working class. Weber's
theory more-closely resembles contemporary Western class structures,
although economic status does not currently seem to depend strictly on
earnings in the way Weber envisioned.

I apologize for slipping into my professorial mode here, but the point I am
making is that all of the systems that have been tested to date are
imperfect and have serious flaws that are eventually exploited. The perfect
system does not exist, except only in theory.

Personally, I think an interesting experiment that is currently taking
place is the marriage of communism and Capitalism that is happening in
China. In theory, it could be a superior system, but unfortunately, like
all theoretical political and social systems, in practice, the shortcomings
are exploited by power-hungry people, which seem to be a human trait, and
as delineated by numerous studies of other life forms, it seems to be a
common trait among other species as well.

How is this blind related? Believe it or not, it relates to all individuals
that are perceived as significantly different from the accepted cultural
norm of the specific society in which the individual lives. The animals,
who perceive themselves as superior within the accepted norm of their
culture, discriminate against those who are perceived as inferior. Such
perceptions can derive from perceptions of various disabilities, inferior
intelligence, undesirable physical traits, etc.

Individuals that are perceived based upon the norms of their society, as
having desirable traits tend to rise to positions of power, political power
and power over the private sector means of capital wealth. Interestingly,
this seems to apply to all societies and to all political systems.

I realize we can all point to some examples of what appear to be exceptions
to these broad generalities, but upon careful scrutiny, we find political
leaders, like Adolf Hitler, while having unattractive physical traits as
perceived by most people, was also perceived as having a very dynamic
personal magnetism or charisma, a desirable personal trait. Consequently,
as diabolical as Hitler was, because of his charisma, he was still able to
rise to power.

Unfortunately, blindness is not perceived as a desirable trait by any
society. To the contrary, it is perceived as an extremely undesirable
trait; thus, no matter what else we do, we will probably not be able to
rise to positions of the highest authority or power. Thus, we must usurp
our power through the influence of those who are in power. We derive our
power and influence by uniting together, forming influence from the power
of numbers. That is what we get from being members of ACB, and yes, NFB as
well. As an individual, you might not be able to exert very much power or
influence, but as an organization, we can exert considerable political and
even social influence. It is slow and difficult, as Eric Bridges, can
certainly attest, but nevertheless, it is the best, if not the only, way we
can significantly affect desirable change.

Ron M.


Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, retired Professor Western Kentucky University
Ph: 270-782-9325
Email: rmilliman@insightbb.com

Chair, American Council of the Blind Public Relations Committee

Chair, American Council of the Blind's Monthly Monetary Support Program
(MMS) Committee

President: South Central Kentucky Council of the Blind (SCKCB)